WomenCorporateDirectors Announces Collaboration with Diligent Corporation to Drive Smarter, More Diverse Corporate Governance

NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD), the largest organization of women board members worldwide with more than 3,500 members in 70 global chapters, today announced a new collaboration with Diligent Corporation to drive best practices in corporate governance. Diligent and WCD will work together to shape regional and global WCD events and to develop thought leadership programs that encourage greater diversity among top executives and highlight the accomplishments of women directors.  

"Diligent brings unparalleled expertise in many of the hot-button issues that directors care about today," said Susan Stautberg, CEO, global co-chair, and co-founder of WCD. "Boards need an intuitive platform that not only facilitates global collaboration and decision-making but also supports corporate compliance and security concerns – something that Diligent understands and makes possible. Diligent's commitment to boards and directors makes them a perfect match for WCD."

Diligent provides a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based platform for the secure electronic production, distribution, and collaboration of confidential information to boards, committees, and leadership teams. Used by more than 3,300 companies across more than 60 countries, Diligent works with more than a third of the Fortune 1000.

"WCD possesses deep knowledge of the vanguard issues that today's board members face and is raising the standard for board service with programs for directors that highlight smart governance with global vision," said Brian Stafford, CEO of Diligent. "Sponsoring WCD and its programs allows Diligent to collaborate with the world's most influential leaders and explore solutions to evolving corporate governance challenges. In addition, we look forward to contributing to the expanding body of knowledge that recognizes diversity of gender, ethnicity, age, and experience as vital drivers of internal innovation, creativity, and business growth."

In this collaboration, WCD and Diligent will work to advance best practices in corporate governance with thought leadership programs and initiatives, including conducting surveys among Diligent's more than 100,000 users to shed light on how directors think about issues such as board diversity and the gender gap among leading executives. WCD and Diligent will also team up on projects that underscore the challenges and successes faced by individual women in top corporate positions.

In addition, Diligent will provide consultation, research, and other content for the WCD "Institutes," a series of conventions in which top executives and policy experts gather to discuss solutions to problems ranging from contemporary cybersecurity to guiding companies during an era when technology is driving corporate, political, and cultural transformation.

"So many of our members use the Diligent Boards solution every day for their board meetings," said Stautberg. "It's a strong, valued brand that simplifies our lives and makes us more effective directors."

For more information, please contact Suzanne Oaks Brownstein or Trang Mar of Temin and Company at 212-588-8788 or [email protected].

About WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD)
WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) is the only global membership organization and community of women corporate directors, comprised of more than 3,500 members serving on over 6,500 boards in 70 chapters around the world, with many more slated in the next two quarters. The aggregate market capitalization of public companies on whose boards WCD members serve is $8 trillion – if WCD were a country, its economy would be the world's third largest, behind only the U.S. and China. In addition, WCD members serve on numerous boards of large private companies globally.

WCD membership provides a unique platform for learning from the intellectual capital of accomplished women from around the world, and WCD's mission is to increase courage, candor, inclusion, and cohesion in the boardroom. KPMG is a Global Lead Sponsor of WCD. Spencer Stuart is a Premier Global Sponsor, Diligent is Global Executive Sponsor, and WCD Strategic Sponsors include Marriott International, Marsh & McLennan Companies, McGraw Hill Financial, and Pearl Meyer & Partners; WCD Alliance Sponsors include International Finance Corporation (IFC), JPMorgan Chase, and Northern Trust.

WCD has 70 global chapters, located in Arizona, Atlanta, Beijing, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Chile, Cleveland, Colombia, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth, Delhi, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greater Colorado, Greater New Mexico, Guatemala, Gulf Cooperation Council, Hanoi, Hawaii, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Houston, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kansas City, Kenya, London, Los Angeles/Orange County, Malaysia, Melbourne, Mexico, Milan, Minnesota, Mongolia, Morocco, Mumbai, Netherlands, New York, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern California, North Florida/South Georgia, Panama, Peru, Philadelphia, Philippines, Quebec, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San Diego, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, South Africa, South Florida, Spain, Switzerland, Sydney, Tampa, Tennessee, Toronto, Turkey, Washington, D.C., and Western Canada. For more information, visit www.womencorporatedirectors.com or follow us on Twitter @WomenCorpDirs, #WCDboards.

About Diligent (NZX: DIL)
Diligent is the leading provider of secure corporate governance and collaboration solutions for boards and senior executives. Over 3,300 clients in more than 60 countries and on all seven continents rely on Diligent to provide secure, intuitive access to their most time-sensitive and confidential information, ultimately helping them make better decisions. The Diligent Boards (formerly Diligent Boardbooks) solution speeds and simplifies how board materials are produced, delivered and collaborated on via any device, removing the security concerns of doing this by courier, email and file sharing. Diligent is a publicly listed company (NZX:DIL) with nearly $US 100 million in annual recurring revenue, based on previously reported revenue retention rates. Visit www.diligent.com to learn more.

Safe Harbor Statement
Statements made in this press release that state Diligent's or management's intentions, beliefs, expectations, or predictions for the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that these statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results. All forward-looking statements are only as of the date of this press release and Diligent undertakes no obligation to update or revise them. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause Diligent's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. For example, if our new products and features do not fit with our customers' needs, our financial performance and revenue growth may suffer. Factors which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements include, without limitation, economic, competitive, regulatory and technological factors affecting Diligent Corporation's operations, markets, products, services and other factors set forth in the Company's Risk Factors included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 16, 2015.

SOURCE WomenCorporateDirectors; Diligent

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